Tag: momentum monday

Microsoft Security Essentials – It Says Essential Right in the Name!

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If you have never gotten a virus or spyware on your computer, you either run a Mac (don’t get me started) or you are pretty diligent in keeping your cyber-self protected.  Or else you have a virus AND spyware and just don’t know.

…

Well, let’s hope for the former, but either way, Microsoft Security Essentials is a great, free tool to help keep you safe.  Here’s what they say about themselves:

Use Microsoft Security Essentials to guard against viruses, spyware, and other evil software. It provides real-time protection for your home or small business PCs.

Microsoft Security Essentials is free* and we designed it to be simple to install and easy to use. It runs quietly and efficiently in the background so you don’t have to worry about interruptions or making updates.

Now, don’t let the “free” part throw you.  This is not one of those deals where it seems great because it is free but you find out later that there are pieces missing (that you need to pay for).  This program is self contained and does what it does.  And does it well.  The question is how can I prove it to you…

Well, I’m not going to send you to a page that I know has a virus on it (though I totally could!) but I can give you my thoughts on why Microsoft created an easy and thorough virus and spyware protection program.  “Because Microsoft gets all the viruses.”  Now don’t think for a second that I am knocking them.  I’m not.  They are on something like 95% of all the computers in the world and the program is huge and they have to leave in all sorts of ways to make the program “accessible” which means that people will take advantage.

But who is going to know more about all the things that people use to attack Microsoft better than Microsoft?  Well, yes, the people making the viruses, but Microsoft will know second!  So download Microsoft Security Essentials and give it a spin.  You don’t need to get rid of your existing virus programs, either.  They can run next to each other, and more security is always better.

It runs smoothly and “quietly” in the background.  Even when it is doing a scan you can still do work on your machine without everything taking forever.  So while it is easy to say that something free is “worth the investment” but this program would be even if it cost money.  Good luck!  And let us know how it goes in the comments.

Down for everyone or just me – show those IT guys you mean business!

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President’s Day is over and even though I’m not a President I had yesterday off.  But now I’m back with a new tip for Momentum Monday Tuesday!

Have you ever tried to get to a website (or, more likely, your own website) and not been able to?  Of course there is a moment of panic when you can’t see your site.  But before you start making phone calls, think about the other times this has happened.  What does your IT person, vendor, host ask you?

  1. Can you get to other websites?  This one really hurts because the last thing you want to do when you think your website is down is go to a different website.  But you should.  In fact, we recommend bookmarking DeMicco.com for just that purpose!
  2. Can other people in your office see it?  This always comes next.  Usually if there is trouble you will see heads pop out of cubicles like prairie dogs asking if the Internet is down.

Well, that’s not a very long list of things.  But I am here to tell you that there is one more thing you can do to make yourself feel better (or at least be able to give your support folks some more info).  The site is http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it’s name is as long as the site is handy.

All you need to do is type in the name of the site you want to check and hit enter.  It will tell you whether or not it is just you.  The way it works is by accessing the site from another location, which means that the problem is most likely localized to your building or area.

This is by no means any reason to not check into the issue further, but it should be enough to give you a little peace of mind (if the site says it is just you) or to call for assistance (if it says it isn’t).

Momentum Monday- Fences

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If you use windows, I am pretty confident that when you first got your computer you thought: “I am going to keep this new computer soooo organized nobody will even believe it!”  And you try, in the beginning.  The million email attachments you get per day get put in their own folders and you are all happy with yourself.

But then one day you are in a hurry and you just save something to the desktop “real quick”.  And then once there is one thing, there will be more.  You don’t know what they are or why they’re there.  There is something called Untitled(1)(2)(3).jpg.  Seven word docs where the first one is called FINAL and the seventh is called FINAL-APPROVED-EDITED-JAN-11-VERSION-To-SEND.doc.

You need help.  We all do.  And I’m here to tell you that Fences will be your deliverance.  Got some icons you want to corral?  Just right click and draw a box around them.  Name it, and BAM, all that stuff is in one spot.  And it will SCROLL within your desktop so you can fit way more junk in it than it looks like it will hold.  So you can make boxes and put all your stuff on them and make your desktop LOOK neat.  It might not make any sense to anyone but you, but you can name the boxes cool sounding things like: “Project Candlestick” and make people wonder what you’re doing.

Or…you could look super organized and just hide all the icons with a click or a button.  That way, you can be as messy as you want but if someone comes over you can be all: “look at my Darth Vader wallpaper that you can actually see because my desktop isn’t messy”.  Then when they leave, boom! back to being an e-hoarder!  Give it a shot!